


Other Monsters

by CirrusGrey



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Episode Related, Gen, episode 153 spoilers, look I just love Julia okay?, not quite crack but close, rating is for swears
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-10-19 08:47:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20654444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CirrusGrey/pseuds/CirrusGrey
Summary: SPOILERS FOR MAG 153!!!Julia and Trevor go hunting.





	Other Monsters

They started with the thing in the tunnels. It wasn't too hard to find: a yellow door, paint peeling from its edges, set into the cold stone wall. Julia glanced at Trevor, waiting for his affirmative nod to fling it open. 

Then they charged inside.

It was... disconcerting. There was... _ something _ there, for sure. Something in the mirrors, something hidden behind the endless left-hand turns. Only... it wasn't _ there _ there. No matter how many mirrors were smashed, no matter how carefully each corner was stalked, it disappeared before they could catch it. It left no smell to track, no footprints to follow along the corridors, only shadows and a grating laugh as it disappeared for the umpteenth time. 

Hours passed. The colors of the walls changed, but the walls themselves did not. Trevor and Julia stuck close to each other, exchanging tense whispers. Even if they were lost in here, they would not lose each other.

And then, suddenly, there was a door. Peeling yellow paint, hanging half-open on its hinges with a shadow standing behind it. They flanked it, one on each side, creeping closer along the walls so their prey would not see them. Once they were close enough, they exchanged a nod. Three, two, one-

Julia burst through the door first, snarling, and just barely managed to catch herself before she collided with a bookshelf. She quickly sidestepped as Trevor came after her, ricocheting of the shelf and falling back to the floor.

She laughed. "Watch where you're going, old man."

He grumbled as she pulled him to his feet, then looked around. 

"We didn't move a blasted foot!"

It wasn't quite true. They were approximately twenty feet left of where they had entered the corridors, and one floor up, standing by the trapdoor that led down to the tunnels. The yellow door was currently stuck in a bookshelf in the Archives. 

It creaked a bit, looking smug, and swung closed. That echoing, mocking laugh spiraled from within the corridors as it disappeared. 

"Good luck with that one. There's not much anything in the world can do to shift her, once she's settled in." 

The Hunters turned. There was a woman watching them. She smelled... odd. A little like the one who had stolen their page, a little like the one who had protected him. Unaffiliated, or perhaps affiliated with too many things at once. Not human, that was for sure.

"You here to stop us?" Julia smirked with the words. Trevor may have pulled her away from the other fight, but the two of them together would be able to handle this one, no problem.

"Nah." The woman shoved her hands in her pockets, leaning against a bookshelf. "Daisy and Jon told me what you guys are up to, and honestly I think you've got the right idea. Things like that," she nodded at where the door had been, "all they do is hurt people."

Julia tilted her head to the side. "You here to help us, then?"

"Nope." The woman glanced behind her, checking for listeners. "Just to offer a bit of advice. I may agree with what you're doing, but we're... _ protective... _ of our own. I'm sure you understand. You want to run around killing monsters, that's fine by me. But you leave Daisy alone. She's mine."

"That the lapdog?"

The woman glared at Trevor. "She's the one who nearly killed you, yeah. Stay away from her. And stay away from Jon. I've got an eye on him, he's not going to be hurting anyone under my watch. And if he does..."

"You won't hesitate to stop him." Julia smiled. She _ liked _ this one. Personally she preferred to actively stalk her prey rather than lie in wait for it, but she could respect patience in matters like this. "So. If we're staying away from your lot, and the one behind the doors keeps hiding, do you know any _ other _monsters we could hunt?"

The woman snorted. "Might start with the Head of the Institute. Acting Head, whatever. Trust me, _ no one _is going to stop you killing him."

"Much appreciated." Julia shot her a conspiratorial wink, then grabbed Trevor's arm. "Come on, we have a new target."

"Wait, wait," he resisted. "We're just going to leave this one?"

"Sure, she's been helpful. And besides," she glanced back at the woman, who was watching them warily. "The level of confidence she has here, I'm pretty sure she has a gun, and won't hesitate to use it."

The woman smiled, pulling back the hem of her coat to show that, yes, she was indeed armed. Trevor huffed.

"Damn place is full of monsters, can't hunt any of them. Fine. Let's go find this boss man."

They left.

The office wasn't hard to find, situated on one of the upper floors of the Institute and clearly labeled. There was an unsettlingly empty feeling to it, though. As though it hadn't been occupied in years.

"You sure this is the place?"

"Says so on the door, doesn't it?"

And so it did: Elias Bouchard, Head of the Magnus Institute. But it didn't smell like a Watcher's domain.

The door opened silently as Julia pushed at it, slowly revealing the interior of the office. It was a spacious room, well-furnished with dark wooden bookshelves and an enormous desk. A clock on the wall ticked loudly.

There was a man seated behind the desk, clicking away furiously at his computer. Curly hair, round face. Bags under his eyes, looking like he hadn't slept enough recently. Julia frowned. If she were to guess, he looked a lot like-

The man turned to grab a folder off the desk and saw them. He gave a short, startled shriek, and disappeared. 

Julia blinked. "Now_ that, _ I didn't expect." She turned to Trevor, one eyebrow raised. "You ever seen an invisible man befo-?"

But Trevor wasn't there. She frowned. "Oi, where'd you wander off to?"

The corridor outside the office was empty when she checked. Julia bit her lip, beginning to worry. That empty smell... it wasn't just the office now. _ Everything _felt abandoned.

And, indeed, was. She wandered the halls of the Institute, pushing open doors and searching for the least little trace of life, but it was all... gone. Or perhaps _ she _was the one that was gone. It seemed more likely.

"Sure, he goes off about his _ hair _ and his _ smile, _ and the _ tea _ he makes, but Jonathan-Archivist-_fucking-_Sims can't be bothered to tell us his boyfriend sends people away to another dimension when you spook him? Useless asshole."

Julia kicked open another door, sending a few splinters flying. It had been a mistake to get the Archivist drunk back in America. Damn lovesick idiot wouldn't stop talking. But at least it gave her some indication of who had stuck her here.

"So that's your precious Martin, huh? Can't see what all the fuss was about."

She looked around. She appeared to be in a small kitchenette off the Archives, well-stocked with enough food to feed a family for a month. Given the camp beds she'd seen scattered around the place, that probably wasn't an exaggeration.

The door across from her burst open and she jumped, sliding with ease into a fighting stance. She had thought she was _ alone _here, anything caught here with her was sure to be some hideous monst-

"Julia?"

"Trevor!"

"I thought you were gone, girl!"

"Same to you, old man!"

She strode forward, grinning, and met him with a hug halfway across the room.

"Gotta say this is one of the weirder things we've run into."

"Speak for yourself. You never met the spider woman."

"Ah, well. Not all of us have been at this as long as you."

She punched his arm lightly as she pulled back, still smiling. He opened his mouth to retort, but was cut off by someone clearing their throat from the table in the center of the room.

"So, uh. You're the ones who broke the door, I'm guessing?"

They spun in unison. There was a woman sitting at the table, feet propped up in front of her, casually eating from a bowl of noodles. She raised an eyebrow at their scrutiny. 

"Just saying, I think you were caught in the Lonely or something, so if you were trying to be cool _ I _didn't see you break it down."

Julia's brow furrowed. The woman looked oddly familiar.

"Wait, are you-"

"Melanie King, former host of Ghost Hunt UK, at your service." She gave a mock salute. "And I'd assume you're vampire Trevor and the serial killer's daughter?"

"How does she know about-"

Julia cut Trevor off. "Oh. My. God. I used to be such a fan of your show! I was so disappointed when you guys shut down, what happened?"

Melanie shrugged. "Found a ghost. Things got real." She blinked, frowned. "Hey, you guys want some ramen? I just realized, I'm here eating, I haven't offered..."

"Actually-"

"Now hold on just one second." Trevor interrupted. "We still don't know who she is or why she knows about us, and you're just going to go and accept food from her? It might be poisoned for all we know!"

Melanie paused with her fork halfway to her mouth, looking down into the bowl. "It's got curry?"

"Sounds lovely, but unfortunately we've got other things to do. Monsters to hunt, you know how it is." Julia glared at Trevor. "And no, we're not hurting this one. This is _ Melanie King." _

Melanie grinned. "Nice to meet a fan. Where're you headed off to, then?"

"Looking for the Head of the Institute. The woman with the gun said he'd be an ideal target."

"Wait, you mean Basira? When did she start carrying a gun again? Never mind," Melanie shook her head. "Not important. You're not going to find Lukas here, if he's the one you're going for. Bit of an absentee boss."

"Yeah, we kind of figured. All we found in his office was some guy who I'm assuming was the one called Martin?"

"God, does Jon just tell everyone he meets about him? Yeah, that was probably Martin. He the one that sent you to the Lonely?"

"Seemingly." Julia crossed her arms. "I'm starting to think we should deal with _ him _before moving on to that Lukas guy."

"Nah," Melanie waved her fork. "All you'd end up doing is setting Jon on the warpath. And then Daisy would join him, and Basira would join _ her, _ and it'd just be a mess."

"So what do you suggest?"

"Go after Lukas. I know where he lives."

"Wait, really? Look at that!" Julia punched Trevor on the shoulder again. "And you wanted to kill her!"

He grumbled into his beard. "Still think it's a good option."

"Look, here." Melanie took her feet off the table, leaning forward to show Julia a map on her phone. "Its called Moorland House, in Kent. Pretty sure a whole bunch of Lukases live there, you'll have a field day."

"Sounds delightful." Julia copied the address into her phone. "Thanks."

"No problem." Melanie picked up her bowl again. "Sure you don't want any ramen before you go?"

"We're fine, thanks." Trevor jerked his head towards the door. "Come on, let's get out of here."

"You know, there's nothing wrong with making friends." Julia waved at Melanie as she followed Trevor out the door. Melanie waved back absently, already engrossed with something on her phone. "You need to lighten up."

"Lighten up? That'll get you killed if you're not careful!" 

"I'm just saying..." The bickering faded down the corridor.

~~~~~

Shortly thereafter, a new message appeared in "MK's awesome hey maybe we should all just talk to each other group chat":

_ Good work guys! We all talked to the same two people today! That's practically like talking to each other! _

_ I'm so proud of us _

And a few minutes later:

_ Seriously, I can send you all the contact info for my therapist if you want it _

_ Y'all need help. _


End file.
